Nintendo's Hideki Konno discusses the 3DS and the element of surprise

As E3 was coming to a close, we sat down with one of the men responsible for Nintendo's 3DS, Hideki Konno. Konno's official title is manager / producer, but because he's involved at such a high level with both software and hardware development on the 3DS, our conversation covered quite the range of topics. When asked about the handheld's performance in the last year, he drew parallels to the success of the DS that preceded it and he hopes that the 3DS will experience a similar growth curve. Due to the mention of the DS, we inquired about the possibility of a larger 3DS. While Mr. Konno wasn't able to confirm plans for a super-sized version of the current-gen handheld, he did express his affinity for theDSi XL's increased real estate -- he finds the larger screen is much easier to gaze upon. You can draw your own conclusions as to exactly what that means. When chatting about mobile gaming, we asked about the impact of smartphones on the outfit's handheld. Konno offered that Nintendo prides itself on surprising gamers with new "compelling experiences" that handsets can't provide.We asked if any of these new experiences would involve the integration of both 3DS and the Wii U, and Konno replied that he's confident about those explorations taking place in future. In fact, a version of the Smash Brothers series is currently being developed for both 3DS and Wii U simultaneously. He indicated that it would be hard to believe that the two versions being developed in parallel wouldn't provide some unique interactions between them and their respective platforms. Additionally, while it sounds like the Miiverse will only be available on Big N's next-gen console at launch, Mr. Konno communicated that -- depending out how well it's received -- we're likely see the social element brought to the mobile gaming arena, too.